Today has been a day of bug fixing. After taking some time off tinkering with the Sandbox, I decided today to get back to work with it and take a look at fixing some of the bugs. The two on the list today - the Progress Indicator and supply ships.
The first has been relatively easy to fix. A couple of variables added and some code enabled and the timers and progress indicators seem to work fine. The GM now has the ability to set a timer from 1s all the way to 5 minutes and 59 seconds. When they start the timer, a small indicator appears in the top right of the map and shows a percentage that increases gradually, reaching 100% when the timer is finished. It is something the GMs have wanted in the TSN RP Community to show the progress of mission events like data uploads or downloads or marine boarding actions, as well as other ideas.
The much trickier problem to solve has been the supply ship code. Within the Sandbox, GMs can spawn two "Auxiliary" ships which can resupply player ships with ordnance. One is a light supply ship with stocks of ECMs and homing torpedoes, whereas the other is a normal supply ship with all ordnance bar P-Shock torpedoes. The problem though was they never seemed to resupply a ship that came within range. After combing through the code numerous times, as well as refining it further, I have finally managed to get it working! Now, when a player ship comes within 600 units of a supply ship and slows to less than 80% impulse speed, the supply ship beings transfer torpedoes up to the player ship's maximum limit. It all links in with some changes I made about a month ago to measure the maximum load of torpedoes on a player ship and it seems to be working.... FINALLY! I am yet to give it a full and thorough testing (the shift on Saturday will be when it can be really tested), but I am pretty certain now I have managed to fix the issue. It all boiled down to this: <. The one little sign that was the wrong way around. There were a couple of other bits that needed fixing, but ultimately it was a simple mathematical symbol!
Now that those bugs are corrected and things seem to be functioning properly again, I think I am going to return to creating systems and new features. The "Fighter" mode for the script still needs some work on it. I am still figuring out the details about how to implement it. For example, how should the players select the system and sector to start in? Should the carrier be stationary or move around with comms orders, like a comms officer directing an ally? Should it be a fully GM controlled mode?
There are a couple of other modes I want to work on too. The "Patrol" mode is working fine, but can easily be expanded upon and improved further. I also have the "Pirate" mode, perhaps one of the more exciting developments. The Pirate mode puts the player in the role of a pirate or mercenary crew from the Euphini expanse, rather than a TSN crew. It is still possible to explore all the systems in the Sandbox, but all the TSN and USFP bases are enemies. I wanted to add some kind of "plunder" system too, so that the crew could receive some kind of money or reward when attacking ships and I have a couple of ideas how to do this. I was thinking that several 'trackers' on the science screen would work to give crews an idea of how many resources that they have stolen. What I need to figure out is how best to code stealing the resource. There needs to be some kind of random spawn when an enemy ship is wrecked, like anomalies. The Pirate mode links in with the Patrol mode as they both use the "Random spawn" code to spawn in enemies and allies so I can probably work on both at the same time.
Anyway, that is all for now. Hopefully I can get an update released soon. The last release included a "Vanilla" version which didn't require a mod. It took time to create and I doubt I will release another vanilla version. Instead, I am going to focus on the TSN RP version, with a quick change to the ship names for the normal release. To really get the full effect of the Sandbox, it needs to be played with the mod. Without it, there are so many functions lost!
Friday 5 August 2016
Sunday 1 May 2016
New Release: TSN Sandbox V4 with GUI and Vanilla version
Well, the other night I went ahead and made a public release of the TSN Sandbox V4. Over the past couple of weeks, I have been finishing up the GM menus and giving the Sandbox a test. I have taken the opportunity to GM a couple of missions for the TSN RP Community due to a twist in the story that saw me "presumed dead" for a short period. This freed me up to really try out the Sandbox and the new menus.
The addition of the GM GUI is, frankly, awesome. It is a complete game changer (pardon the pun) when it comes to being GM. They've been incredibly easy to add in to the Sandbox mission script, and really do make GMing possible for virtually anyone with an idea for a mission. Before, trying to GM a mission meant having to read through a key reference guide and then almost memorise the different key presses. I had tried making it easier using some generic meshes in the top corner as a reference of which menu was selected, but it never was particularly easy to use. Now, with menus in plain English, it is a simple matter of point and click!
There are a few more things I need to finish up for the GM controls, but the majority are finished and give a huge range of things that GMs can do, from spawning new terrain, some of the creatures, to spawning enemy fleets, and special "pick-ups" like lifepods and black boxes. Most of the code was simply used from the previous Sandbox version, with the main difference being the addition of the menu buttons. The final part of the main menu system I am working on is the "Interactions" menu. This will give GMs different options to directly affect the player's ship. So far I have added in options to; repair or damage all the different ship systems, like primary beams, sensors and maneuvering; add or remove 100 units of energy at a time; add or remove one piece of ordnance at a time; add or remove damcon teams; and send pre-scripted messages. I am still finalising how the sub-menus are set up - I am thinking of using the same set up as the "Enemy" menus where a drop down select is enabled and disabled.
With this release of the TSN Sandbox, it was also suggested releasing a "Vanilla" version, that worked without the TSN Expansion mod. With a couple of hours work, I was able to change or remove the code linked with the expansion, and so release a version that will work with the standard Artemis 2.4.0 game. I haven't removed the menus linked with the Expansion, instead I have just deactived the events linked to the button presses. Hopefully, with the ability to access the TSN Sandbox on the standard Artemis game and see all the additional options for alien races, it will inspire people to try out the TSN Expansion. I have packaged the whole thing together into one zip file so it is all there and ready to go in case players try it. The work that has gone in to the TSN Expansion is awesome. It really does enhance the game massively and I think it is something that players would love.
Anyway, that is all for now. After finishing the "Interations" menu, the next main focus is expanding on the systems within the sandbox. USFP space is now quite extensive - Krisenda system was recently added - so I am going to focus on creating several neutral systems around Hjorden and expanding the enemy systems. The Stellar Cartography maps are all completely up to date and show how extensive the space is already! Feel free to check them out:
The addition of the GM GUI is, frankly, awesome. It is a complete game changer (pardon the pun) when it comes to being GM. They've been incredibly easy to add in to the Sandbox mission script, and really do make GMing possible for virtually anyone with an idea for a mission. Before, trying to GM a mission meant having to read through a key reference guide and then almost memorise the different key presses. I had tried making it easier using some generic meshes in the top corner as a reference of which menu was selected, but it never was particularly easy to use. Now, with menus in plain English, it is a simple matter of point and click!
There are a few more things I need to finish up for the GM controls, but the majority are finished and give a huge range of things that GMs can do, from spawning new terrain, some of the creatures, to spawning enemy fleets, and special "pick-ups" like lifepods and black boxes. Most of the code was simply used from the previous Sandbox version, with the main difference being the addition of the menu buttons. The final part of the main menu system I am working on is the "Interactions" menu. This will give GMs different options to directly affect the player's ship. So far I have added in options to; repair or damage all the different ship systems, like primary beams, sensors and maneuvering; add or remove 100 units of energy at a time; add or remove one piece of ordnance at a time; add or remove damcon teams; and send pre-scripted messages. I am still finalising how the sub-menus are set up - I am thinking of using the same set up as the "Enemy" menus where a drop down select is enabled and disabled.
With this release of the TSN Sandbox, it was also suggested releasing a "Vanilla" version, that worked without the TSN Expansion mod. With a couple of hours work, I was able to change or remove the code linked with the expansion, and so release a version that will work with the standard Artemis 2.4.0 game. I haven't removed the menus linked with the Expansion, instead I have just deactived the events linked to the button presses. Hopefully, with the ability to access the TSN Sandbox on the standard Artemis game and see all the additional options for alien races, it will inspire people to try out the TSN Expansion. I have packaged the whole thing together into one zip file so it is all there and ready to go in case players try it. The work that has gone in to the TSN Expansion is awesome. It really does enhance the game massively and I think it is something that players would love.
Anyway, that is all for now. After finishing the "Interations" menu, the next main focus is expanding on the systems within the sandbox. USFP space is now quite extensive - Krisenda system was recently added - so I am going to focus on creating several neutral systems around Hjorden and expanding the enemy systems. The Stellar Cartography maps are all completely up to date and show how extensive the space is already! Feel free to check them out:
Wednesday 30 March 2016
TSN Sandbox and new GM GUI
Over the past couple of days, I have had chance to add more systems to the TSN Sandbox. After talking with Evans, I decided to focus on creating the Volantis system and Waypoint 52. Both were straightforward to add in, and only took a couple of hours work. No doubt there will be some bug I have missed, but after a little testing, I managed to iron out a few issues - mainly transition problems where I had missed renaming a variable.
With these two new systems added, it completes a loop though USFP controlled space. Now crews can set out on a patrol flight and visit several sectors in turn in a complete circuit. This was the main reason for focusing on these two systems. Next, I want to add in some more things to encounter in the patrol mode so that ships can set out on patrol with a GM and have to handle various enemies or situations. I was thinking of adding in some "suspicious" ships - cargo vessels behaving strangely or with strange readings when scanned. These would have to be then intercepted and dealt with by crews on their patrol. I was also thinking of increasing the presence of pirates across all systems so that players are bound to come in to contact with something as they transit USFP space. A patrol may only see one or two contacts, but potentially could come across many more if out for a longer period of time. Combined with the suspect vessels, it should add enough variety for patrols.
There have been a couple of suggestions on the Artemis forums about functions to add to the GM keys. One I am definitely going to look in to is the ability to switch between GM mode and Patrol mode during the mission. There are a few more keys to add in with new enemies from the TSN Expansion too. I was also thinking of something else I could do with the GM console, but don't want to go into that at the moment; it is just an idea, but one that could really be an exciting and engaging addition for crews.
All this is plans for the future however. I am holding off on doing anything with the GM keys until the release of the new GM GUI that is being added. When it is available, I am going to overhaul all the GM keys so that they use the new menus. I know the changes are really going to make a massive difference to the Sandbox in terms of its usability and personally I cannot wait until I can get started upgrading the sandbox code.
Other new mission script code that will make a difference and be added when available will be the ship name code. It will allow me to set the ship names in the script, no longer requiring the player to change the names. Both of the additions to the mission script code will make the sandbox much more user friendly and easy to access.
That's all for now!
With these two new systems added, it completes a loop though USFP controlled space. Now crews can set out on a patrol flight and visit several sectors in turn in a complete circuit. This was the main reason for focusing on these two systems. Next, I want to add in some more things to encounter in the patrol mode so that ships can set out on patrol with a GM and have to handle various enemies or situations. I was thinking of adding in some "suspicious" ships - cargo vessels behaving strangely or with strange readings when scanned. These would have to be then intercepted and dealt with by crews on their patrol. I was also thinking of increasing the presence of pirates across all systems so that players are bound to come in to contact with something as they transit USFP space. A patrol may only see one or two contacts, but potentially could come across many more if out for a longer period of time. Combined with the suspect vessels, it should add enough variety for patrols.
There have been a couple of suggestions on the Artemis forums about functions to add to the GM keys. One I am definitely going to look in to is the ability to switch between GM mode and Patrol mode during the mission. There are a few more keys to add in with new enemies from the TSN Expansion too. I was also thinking of something else I could do with the GM console, but don't want to go into that at the moment; it is just an idea, but one that could really be an exciting and engaging addition for crews.
All this is plans for the future however. I am holding off on doing anything with the GM keys until the release of the new GM GUI that is being added. When it is available, I am going to overhaul all the GM keys so that they use the new menus. I know the changes are really going to make a massive difference to the Sandbox in terms of its usability and personally I cannot wait until I can get started upgrading the sandbox code.
Other new mission script code that will make a difference and be added when available will be the ship name code. It will allow me to set the ship names in the script, no longer requiring the player to change the names. Both of the additions to the mission script code will make the sandbox much more user friendly and easy to access.
That's all for now!
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